Eurosurveillance remains in the updated list of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). It was first added to the DOAJ on 9 September 2004. Eurosurveillance is also listed in the Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access / Rights MEtadata for Open archiving (SHERPA/RoMEO) [2], a database which uses a colour‐coding scheme to classify publishers according to their self‐archiving policy and to show the copyright and open access self-archiving policies of academic journals. Eurosurveillance is listed there as a ‘green’ journal, which means that authors can archive pre-print (i.e. pre-refereeing), post-print (i.e. final draft post-refereeing) and archive the publisher's version/PDF.

2010 will be the 15th year for Eurosurveillance, and as always, the editorial team will do their best to provide their readers with timely, relevant and up-to-date information about infectious disease outbreaks, surveillance, prevention and control. The journal is constantly evolving and as in previous years, there were considerable, positive, changes for both editors and readers in 2009. First and foremost, the joint efforts of contributors, editorial board and team have paid off and Eurosurveillance has been accepted and is now listed for an impact factor with Thomson Reuters [1]. This development poses obvious challenges for the future and we are convinced that we will be able to present an attractive factor in two years time.

2009 was a special year for all public health experts, physicians and policy makers working with infectious diseases. Since the end of April, the 2009 influenza pandemic has been an overriding priority for all and required considerable resources and efforts. From the start when it was uncertain how this pandemic would evolve, we followed it closely and after the first rapid communication on 28 April, we covered the pandemic in a total of 92 articles with worldwide authorship. The majority of publications on the pandemic were rapid communications, but we also published a special issue in October on the situation of the 2009 influenza A(H1N1) pandemic in the southern hemisphere. The rapid communications on the pandemic, usually published within two to seven days from submission, increased in length and scientific content over time. Most were reviewed by two experts who agreed to support us on short notice while already being under substantial pressure in their day-to-day pandemic work. We are grateful for their valuable input and for the assistance received from all our reviewers in 2009. To acknowledge their help we publish their otherwise invisible names in a list of reviewers in 2009 in this issue.

The ability of Eurosurveillance to publish peer-reviewed reports with relevant findings in an exceptionally timely manner created a lot of attention also outside of Europe. During the pandemic, the geographical scope of your journal widened naturally as findings and reports from other continents were obviously relevant for Europe as well. This is reflected in the total of articles with non-European authorship. Also the number of subscribers for Eurosurveillance is still rising, and many new readers and contributors are from Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and North and South America.

Even if the 2009 influenza pandemic kept us busy, we had our eyes on other diseases as well. In total, we published 156 peer-reviewed rapid communications, 112 peer-reviewed full articles and a number of editorials, news pieces, letters and meeting reports. The subjects covered ranged from adenovirus infections, gonorrhoea, measles, emerging viruses such as West Nile and Usutu virus and trichnellosis to Salmonella outbreaks. Issues with a special focus were on tuberculosis, hepatitis A and antimicrobial resistance, whereas the topics of our special issues other than pandemic influenza were pregnancy-related infections, capacity building and training in field epidemiology and trends and behavioural surveillance of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in men who have sex with men.

Our achievements in 2009 highlight clear challenges: While we have expanded our geographical scope and will most probably continue to receive papers also from non-European authors, we will need to carefully consider our criteria for inclusion of papers to ensure the European relevance of Eurosurveillance. All papers that present interesting, new findings and are important for Europe will be considered for publication. To make our journal more attractive for our readers, we will further develop the scientific content and the visibility of Eurosurveillance. From 2010 we will suspend the quarterly print version of Eurosurveillance and print only special issues and topical compilations of articles. The design of the print version has been improved and future issues will have a cover image relating to the content.

Looking forward to collaborating with all our supporters in 2010, we would like to thank our Associate Editors and Editorial Board members and those experts and friends who support us behind the scenes by providing advice and guidance whenever we need it. We are also grateful to our readers and authors for their confidence in our journal and will continue to keep an eye on infectious diseases and do our best to provide you with timely, relevant and interesting information in 2010.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by authors contributing to Eurosurveillance do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) or the editorial team or the institutions with which the authors are affiliated. Neither ECDC nor any person acting on behalf of ECDC is responsible for the use that might be made of the information in this journal. The information provided on the Eurosurveillance site is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her physician. Our website does not host any form of commercial advertisement. Except where otherwise stated, all manuscripts published after 1 January 2016 will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. You are free to share and adapt the material, but you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.